![Image](https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/443/31939906963_fbd986705e_m.jpg)
Dickie had a pet beetle,
he and Jim enjoyed a beetle race,
but one day Jim freed Dickie’s beetle
and then he was in disgrace.
“Now it will get lost,” cried Dickie.
“It doesn’t know its way about.”
“Well i don’t think it was bothered,” said Jim.
“It couldn’t wait to get out and about.”
Ruby overheard the goings on,
and went to fetch Jenny Wren.
“We must try and find his beetle,
then he will be happy again.”
“Well, we don’t know what it looks like,”
said Jenny as she frowned.
“We will have to ask all our friends
to keep a look out on the ground.”
Magpie and Jim kept laughing
as the friends searched the forest floor.
“They’ll never find it,” said naughty Jim.
“I ate it for breakfast with a few more.”
Owl said ,“Beetles all look the same,
you wouldn’t know which one you had caught.”
“Well, no we won’t,” said the others sadly,
then Ruby had a thought.
“Well Dickie won’t know either,
so if we find one and take it back
he will think we are very clever,
because all beetles are black.”
So they took a found one for Dickie
who pronounced it had grown quite tall,
and perhaps it wouldn’t want to race now
so he wouldn’t keep it after all.
Jenny Wren got him a little bug
a new pet for a special treat.
Jim laughed saying it would soon grow,
and then be big enough for him to eat!
© Stella Armour 05-02-2017